Friday, May 1, 2015

I discovered today, that my virtual friend the Trailer Park Cyclist is hanging up his shingle on the 'ol internets citing among other things the time and toil required in being a grown up isn't leaving much time for being the TPC. If you have never read the TPC I urge you to do so at http://trailerparkcyclist.blogspot.com/ his writing is a real treat and in the 4 years I have been reading him I have learned a little and laughed a hell of a lot.

Like my friend, I have been "on the beach" (unemployed) as often as not over the last 3 years. I think Tim Joe got alot more out of being unemployed than I did. I did a little blogging and some working on bikes but mostly I worried over getting the next job. Tim Joe on the other hand wrote alot on his blog and more often than not made me laugh and always made me eager for more. Since he hasn't blogged much in the last year I wasn't shocked that he was closing things down but still saddened a bit that (selfishly) I wouldn't have a TPC post to look forward to. I can, however, attest to the fact that being a grown up and being responsible tends to put a gigantic hole in your day and there often isn't much left to spend on pursuits like a blog.

If I recall correctly I first came across Tim Joe's work in the brief time I read the "Fat Cyclist" blog, he had written and excellent piece called "Trailer Park Cyclist vs Cervelo Guy" and I was hooked. This was also a time when I was transitioning from a Roadie who craved carbon and going fast to a steel is real, ride fat tires and go off pavement and screw the HRM kind of guy. Most of my cycling friends were of the former, pro kit wearing, variety and so I went down the old school steel path alone and ended up finding friends with a similar bent, like Tim Joe, online. Since I live in Seattle and Tim Joe is in Florida that means we don't do actual rides together but I do hope that one day we'll meet up somewhere with our trusty Steel Steeds and take a meandering ride down some back road and end it at a pub over a cold one.